From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 11/23
Date: 1995/11/24
Message-ID:
X-Deja-AN: 120068721
sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System)
organization: University of Waterloo
newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
- The WWF's Survivor Series took place this past Sunday. I'd be forced
to give it a thumbs in the middle, or perhaps a slight thumbs up thanks
to a world title picture with increased potential. The positives were:
- another stellar performance by Shawn Michaels, although he
didn't shine as much as usual sharing time with the other
wrestlers in the match.
- another very good performance by Bret Hart. Bret won the WWF Title
from Diesel, giving the majority of the match to Diesel to keep him
strong after the title loss. Bret won with a surprise small package
after a memorable bump through the ringside Spanish commentary
table. After the match, Diesel demolished Bret Hart and began
his attempt to walk the midline between heel and face.
- a good performance by 1-2-3 Kid, who's seemingly envigorated with
his new role. It seems likely that a Sid & 1-2-3 Kid tag team
will eventually win the WWF Tag Titles.
The negatives were:
- the indefensible waste of the Japanese women flown in for the PPV
and subsequent tapings. This match was an absolute throw-away as
far as I'm concerned. The best wrestler that appeared on the PPV,
Kyoko Inoue, didn't get to show a thing; she tagged in and was pinned
instantly. Chapparita Asari got to do her Sky Twister Press with
the usual sloppiness (she is still quite young), Lioness Asuka got
to do her Giant Swing, Sakie Hasegawa got to do her series of
underhook suplexes, and Aja Kong did her spinning backfist.
Other than those four moves, the Japanese women essentially did
nothing. This was easily the worst match involving so many
All Japan Women wrestlers that I've ever seen. The commentary
was abysmal, with Jim Ross trying to yell out some names of moves
over the match-unrelated commentary of Vince McMahon & Curt Hennig,
who preferred to make jokes about which woman each should date.
- the Undertaker (or a reasonable facsimile) returned to the ring
to lumber through another match.
- Goldust got his second strike, having his second bad PPV match.
He sure was a hell of a lot better as Dustin Rhodes. If you
include his one Superstars TV match, then Goldust has struck
out for me.
- WCW has "World War III" on Sunday. Tentative line-up has:
- a 60-man three ring battle royal (involving WCW wrestlers, including
Hulk Hogan, and Kensukse Sasaki from New Japan) with the winner getting
the WCW Title
- Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto vs. Cutie Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki
- Ric Flair vs. Sting
- Johnny B. Badd vs. Diamond Dallas Page for the TV Title, with
Page putting the Diamond Doll on the line
- Kensuke Sasaki vs. Chris Benoit for the US Title
- Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage
- Big Bubba Rogers vs. Jim Duggan in a taped fist match
The Ric Flair vs. Sting match is doubtful since Flair is recovering
from shoulder surgery. Randy Savage, also with a bad wing, will
likely work the show anyhow; it's not like his match would have
been any good if was well. Savage will work through Starrcade
before taking three months off to have surgery and recover.
The likeliest candidates to win the WCW Title would seem to be
Lex Luger, Hulk Hogan, Sting, and the Giant. Since talk persists
that Hogan is going to take time off to film a movie, there's a
strike against picking him. Sting is set to feud with Kensuke
Sasaki and with the Horsemen on his back, he seems to have
enough issues to keep him busy, so there's a strike against
picking him. The Giant would have nobody to feud with when
Hogan leaves, and he needs to be protected a bit while he learns
some more and continues to choke slam people before an eventual
run with Hulk Hogan again, so there's a strike against him. That
leaves Luger as the strongest choice, IMO.
The Sasaki vs. Benoit match and the Women's tag match are the
most promising matches on the show; but, you have to wonder how
much time each will be given.
- On the live 11/20 Monday Night RAW TV show, Shawn Michaels collapsed
in the ring as part of an angle to explain why the WWF's most
charismatic wrestler will be taking some time off again. Michaels
is legitimately still suffering from symptoms linked to the concussion
he suffered in a parking lot beating in Syracuse. That beating saw
Michaels forfeit the IC Title to Dean Douglas at In Your House in
one of the most emotional scenes at a WWF event in recent memory.
- The second New Japan edition of WCW Pro aired on WTBS this past
weekend. Sonny Onoo was absolutely terrible yet again, offering
"Chris Cruise-san" a Japanese car because he said he was disgusted
by the oil stain Cruise's American car left in the parking lot.
Jushin Liger and Koji Kanemoto actually each tried to work as
heels, both doing some flashy moves, but not many. Liger actually
had a very good match with Barry Houston. This time around, Onoo
seemed to have the Japanese wrestlers' finishing moves written
down. Unfortunately, those were the only moves mentioned in the
match, despite Liger doing a few interesting things like a
fisherman buster suplex. I just don't know who this bullshit
xenophobic stuff is supposed to appeal to; it plays to the worst
stereotype of "hick Americans," IMO, but I'm assured by friends
in Tennessee that the fans in the heartland of Jarrett Promotions
don't care for it either.
Speaking of commentary, Dusty Rhodes' presence on WCW Saturday
Night and WCW Pro have really killed both shows. Saturday Night
aired a wonderful Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero match this past
week that Dusty tried hard to ruin. Argh.
WCW is doing a bit with Dean Malenko on Saturday Night, where
Dean gives the name of a hold, explains it's effect, and then
applies it on a jobber. The first hold was his Texas Clover Leaf
submission hold (I can hear Japanese commentators screaming
"Texas Clover Hold!" as I type). Of course, this is a great
idea, but it comes off weak when Dusty and everybody else then
goes back to not calling the moves in matches. The exact opposite
happens in the WWF, where Jim Ross occasionally yells out the name
of a move (sometimes incorrectly, like Ahmed Johnson's "Tiger Bomb"
which should be "Tiger Driver" or "Liger Bomb," or all those top
rope dives that he calls a moonsault) and nobody ever explains
anything. Really, both promotions need to have their commentators
go to school and learn the names of the moves that the younger
guys are throwing into matches. If the commentators are competent
at calling moves (and they don't have to call every move in a match,
but it should be clear that they could), then having a guy like
Malenko demonstrate the moves will fit in better and fans will
learn the names of the moves and the moves will get over.
- The RAW vs. Nitro ratings war thus far looks like this (draw
your own conclusions):
WCW Nitro WWF RAW
Rating Share Live Rating Share Live
09/04/95 2.9 ? Y - - -
09/11/95 2.5 3.8 Y 2.2 3.2 N
09/18/95 2.4 3.4 Y 2.5 3.4 N
09/25/95 1.9 2.8 Y 2.7 3.8 Y
10/02/95 2.5 3.7 Y 2.5 3.5 N
10/09/95 2.6 3.8 Y 2.6 3.8 N
10/16/95 2.2 3.2 Y 2.5 3.6 N?
10/23/95 2.2 3.2 Y 2.6 3.8 Y?
10/30/95 2.5 3.6 Y 2.2 3.1 N
11/06/95 2.3 3.2 Y 2.1 3.0 N
11/13/95 2.0 2.9 N 2.6 3.9 N
- The WWF has an In Your House PPV on 12/17/95. Tentative line-up has:
- Davey Boy Smith vs. Bret Hart at Survivor Series
- Razor Ramon vs. Goldust for the IC Title
- Ahmed Johnson vs. King Kong Bundy
There's talk that Ramon will drop the IC Title to Hunter Hearst Helmsley
in the new year.
- WCW has Starrcade on PPV on 12/27/95. Tentative line-up has:
- Sting vs. Kensuke Sasaki for the US Title
- Koji Kanemoto vs. Alex Wright for the IWGP Jr. Title
- Randy Savage vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
- Lex Luger vs. Masa Chono
- Johnny B. Badd vs. Hiro Saito
- Eddy Guerrero vs. Shinjiro Otani
- Chris Benoit vs. Jushin Liger
This card will likely see some shuffling.
- The WWF has the Royal Rumble PPV on 01/21/96.
- Awards: The second week of voting is over. The voting period runs one
more week. As of now, about 60 ballots have been submitted. On top
of this, I've rejected a good handful of makeshift ballots; I've
e-mailed anybody who didn't follow the ballot instructions and
encouraged them to re-submit their votes. All of the awards info
is also on my web page.
- WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The
wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, awards history,
Japanese wrestling stuff, and other things.
- Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos.
If you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request.
The VideoMarinepiad III home video is now available.
Herb...